On March 15, 2021, on behalf of five Pacifica residents who reside in RVs, Disability Rights Advocates, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, and the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County filed a class action lawsuit against the city to strike down a law that bans RV parking within city limits. The lawsuit argues … Continue reading “Geary v. City of Pacifica”
Disability Rights Advocates, Westchester Disabled on the Move, Inc., and Westchester County have reached a settlement agreement that will result in significant improvements to the County’s emergency preparedness and response programs for people with disabilities who live in, work in, or travel to the County. The agreement was reached through structured negotiations without any lawsuit … Continue reading “Westchester County Emergency Preparedness”
Disability Rights Advocates is investigating the experiences of higher education students who are denied disability-related accommodations for remote learning. We would greatly appreciate if you would complete the following survey if you have confronted access barriers in remote learning. If you would prefer to share your experiences via email or phone, please contact Amy Ollove … Continue reading “Accommodations and Accessibility in Higher Education”
In April 2020, Disability Rights Advocates and Disability Rights California filed a class action lawsuit against the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) on behalf of deaf individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The lawsuit sought to address the state agency’s discrimination against deaf people who depend on regional center programs and services funded … Continue reading “McCullough v. California Department of Developmental Services”
On August 29, 2019, Disability Rights Advocates and Legal Council for Health Justice filed a class action lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools (“CPS”) challenging CPS’s policy of denying free nutrition programs to students whose disabilities require them to attend therapeutic day schools (“TDS”). On June 3, 2021, Judge Young B. Kim preliminarily approved a settlement … Continue reading “Jackson v. The Board of Education of the City of Chicago”
In August 2019, Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC), Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a nationwide class action lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), challenging ICE’s systemic failure to monitor its facilities, which results in policies, procedures, … Continue reading “Fraihat v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement”
Disability Rights Advocates is investigating complaints from people who are deaf or have hearing loss, regarding the failure of online webinar services to provide captioning when requested. If you are deaf or have hearing loss and have been denied captioning services when requested for an online webinar through services like Zoom or Hootsuite, we … Continue reading “Webinar Captioning”
Disability Rights Advocates is investigating complaints from people who are deaf or have hearing loss, regarding the frequent failure of closed-caption devices at movie theaters. DRA has received complaints that, while many theaters have closed-caption devices on hand, the devices frequently do not function properly. If you are deaf or have hearing loss and have … Continue reading “Closed Captioning at Movie Theaters”
On September 9, 2014, DRA filed a class action lawsuit together with co-counsel from Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs against the District of Columbia for its failure to meaningfully include persons with disabilities in its emergency planning. People with disabilities have traditionally faced exceptionally … Continue reading “D.C. Center for Independent Living, et al. v. District of Columbia”
Northwest Hospital & Medical Center has agreed to implement policy changes to ensure that its patient-focused healthcare services are accessible to individuals who are Deaf and hard of hearing. Hospitals are required to provide patients and companions with auxiliary aids and services—such as qualified sign language interpreters or assistive listening devices—that are necessary for effective … Continue reading “Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services, et al. v. Northwest Hospital & Medical Center et al.”